Panel Discussion: Draft Guidance on Identifying Waters Protected by the Clean Water Act

摘要

The following comments are excerpted and condensed from a panel convened by the Environmental Law Institute to discuss the draft guidance on identifying water protected by the Clean Water Act. The full transcript of the panel discussion is available on the Newsletter's website. Donna M. Downing, Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: How does die proposed guidance differ from the December '08 [guidance] or the long-standing approach that the agencies have had? It has the same categories of traditional navigable waters that have been and are in the current guidance. It differs from the current guidance primarily in the type of information-a type of evidence-necessary to show that a water is navigable in fact, particularly, that it is "susceptible" to commercial navigation-and it clarifies diat specific plans to develop commercial navigation are not required to be considered susceptible.